What doesn’t kill you may not, as Friedrich Nietzsche and Kelly Clarkson claimed, necessarily make you stronger, but it certainly seems to have worked out that way for Pusha T. After all the Virginia Beach mainstay’s seen and done, he’s immune to what normal mortals would experience as Pain. On the lead single off his G.O.O.D. Music debut, label boss Kanye‘s ghostly, chain-rattling percussion and tinny keyboard loops set the stage for verses detailing the acute stresses of the dope hustle: “Pain is love and it’s war / Pain is running out of raw / Pain is finding out you’re poor / as the feds knock at your door.” EPIC recording artist Future drives the point home with a robotic yet tremulous, Auto-Tune-drenched guest hook. Pusha’s solo debut album, My Name Is My Name, is out now.

The stovetop clicks to life, as a blue flame slowly grows until it’s at a steady burn. The pot clanks as it’s aggressively plopped over the blue flame by a gloved hand. Cocaine bubbles within. Finished product form lines...
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